FUT 16 Draft Mode Details

A brand new feature called FUT Draft will make its debut in FIFA 16.

What is FUT Draft Mode?

FUT Draft is a brand new mode for Ultimate Team where you're tasked with building a squad from selections of random players presented to you in groups of five. Think Hearthstone's Arena mode, but for Ultimate Team.

Once your squad is assembled you'll face-off against other FUT Draft teams (offline and online modes available) where your aim is to win four games in a row without being beaten. Each time you win, the potential rewards increase. So the more games you win in a row, the better your prize at the end will be. If you lose, you're out and claim the prize at which ever win level you were at.

How do I enter?

It costs 15,000 coins or 300 FIFA Points to enter but FUT Draft tokens can also be found in FUT 16 packs, in the same way you might find a token to redeem 1,000 coins or a free Gold Pack. But don't worry, even if you enter FUT Draft and lose your first game, you'll always get back at least what you put in. It may not be in the form of 15,000 coins but it will be a prize of equivalent value.

What can I win?

The rewards will always be different, but we picked up Jumbo Gold Packs, Premium Gold and Silver Packs, coins, Standard Gold Packs and everything else in between. As soon as you get past one win, you'll be walking away with more than your entry fee, so there's plenty of reward on offer in FUT Draft.

How does it work?

Choose your match difficulty

First (if playing offline) you choose your match difficulty. This won't affect the types of rewards you receive for winning, but playing on Amateur will reduce the amount of FIFA coins received per game. This step is not applicable to Online.

Choose your formation

Next you'll be presented with five formations to choose from. The selection of formations will be different each time you enter FUT Draft mode, so if your 'favourite' formation isn't available, you'll need to choose a similar variant, or try something totally new.

Choose your captain

The first player to pick is your captain, which will be from a selection of five players as we mentioned. From our experience of FUT Draft, there are normally some very, very, very good players on offer for the Captain spot. You'll be spoilt for choice.

Build the rest of your squad

Now it's entirely up to you which position you choose to fill next. Select a position in the formation and you'll be presented with five players to choose from who will fit that role. Keep picking until your first eleven, substitutes and reserves are chosen. You can auto-complete the process if you wish.

Will you try to build for chemistry, or just pick the best players? That's completely up to you, and sometimes if the selection of players on offer isn't quite what you were looking for, you'll maybe need to make the best of a bad situation. Be creative.

Choose your manager

Lastly you get to pick your FUT Draft Manager which is your final opportunity to boost Team Chemistry should a Manger with the right nationality or league links be available.

Play some matches

Jump in at the deep end and start your first FUT Draft game, hopefully getting to that magic four wins which will yield the best prizes the mode has to offer. Once you're knocked out you claim your prize and then start all over again, building a new squad, and going on a new FUT Draft adventure.

Other things to note

- Player fatigue and injuries reset after each game, meaning your FUT Draft squad will always be fit and raring to go.

- Even if you lose your first game, you'll always get back at least what you put in, in terms of reward.

- You can preview how a particular player fits in to your squad before actually committing.

- You can save and export your FUT Draft squads to Concept Squads should you come across something particularly brilliant you want to build for real.

- Over the course of the year all In Form, TOTY, TOTS and MOTM player versions will appear in FUT Draft. You could still pick up a Week 1 In Form in FUT Draft 10 weeks after their release for example.

- You won't permanently own any of the players you play with in FUT Draft. They're used in FUT Draft and FUT Draft only.

Our thoughts

So what did we think of FUT Draft mode? Well in short, it's brilliant.

As varied and as interesting as squad building can be in the main Ultimate Team modes, there is still an alarming regularity in which you'll come up against the archetypal Bundesliga and BPL squads. People love solid green links, and get that but it doesn't always make for great matches, or great squad building. FUT Draft turns that notion on its head but in a short, sharp format which is really easy to pick up and put down as you need.

Being played over just four games means you could quite conceivably build a squad, play the matches and collect your rewards in an hour and a half. And the great thing about it, is that all the coins you're getting by completing matches, and anything extra you win in FUT Draft mode in prizes is all contributing to your main FUT experience, so it's far from wasted effort.

And more often than not you're going to get a chance to play with players (compared to previous games at least) that you may never have been able to afford in FUT. We saw Ronaldo, Suarez, Bale, Messi, Roberto Carlos and everyone in between in our time with FUT Draft, and whilst you'll only get maybe one or two players of that calibre in each squad, it's still great to get hands on with them. The challenge though, is making them all fit in to your squad.

One particular occasion we managed to get a bit of a Bundesliga theme going with Lewandowski, Reus and Kagawa creating some nice link potential. But then on literally our last pick Gareth Bale popped up. Putting him in the team completely destroyed our chemistry on that side of the pitch, but we did it anyway because he was better than what we had. And that's the joy of FUT Draft, you never know what's coming next, and as a result you'll end up using player combinations and formations you never would have tried before.

EA seem to have the quality and rarity of items received well balanced right now too. (we've played a few versions over the last few months) We were normally getting mostly Gold's, one or two very special players, a few silvers and maybe the odd bronze too now and again in an average squad. It's pretty hard to get 100 chemistry and I think we only managed it once. But if building 100 chem squads was easy in FUT Draft, the whole mode would be rendered fairly pointless.

Myself and Tom had an absolute blast with FUT Draft, whether it was playing individually or building a squad together. During which we probably spent more time arguing about who to pick, than actually playing matches. But that's the essence of why FUT Draft mode is fun, it's about football opinion, a bit of luck, a lot of skill, and the Ultimate Team squad building we all love so dearly. All wrapped up in a very accessible four game format with the chance to win a whole lot more than you entered with. Sign us up for day one. FUT Draft is excellent.

Other Changes to Ultimate Team

As well as FUT Draft there have been a whole host of other changes across Ultimate Team which have centred on community feedback, and making the mode easier to navigate than ever before.

- A new item 'tag' system will allow you to tag multiple items within a pack and then 'Send all' tagged items to where ever you like. Leaving the rest of the pack contents in tact. No more, sorting individual items.

- When you want to apply a consumable to a player, FUT will now suggest items based on the players needs. If they have an arm injury, and you have an arm heal item, it will bring that to the top of your consumables deck. The same goes for players without a contract, etc. No more trawling through consumables.

- You can now search specifically for In Form versions of players on the Transfer Market.

- FUT has a brand new in-game broadcast presentation pack.

- FUT story lines have been added to the in-game commentary, with Tyler and Smith now able to discuss your top scorers, new players and much, much more relating to your FUT squads.

- The new In Form's look unreal. Seriously.

So what do you guys think of FUT Draft? Hit us up in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer any questions you might have.